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Review: Go Girl: A Storybook of Epic NZ Women

Review: Go Girl: A Storybook of Epic NZ Women

You will have seen our Sampling, you have seen why it needed to be written. Now, here's the verdict on Go Girl: A Storybook of Epic NZ Women. Is it everything it promises to be? Emily Writes is here to tell you what she and her children thought. After the phenomenal success of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls it seemed only a matter of time before we would have a New Zealand version of the book of heroes. In Go Girl: A Storybook of Epic New Zealand Women by Barbara Else we h

My childhood, books & the gift of stray dogs

My childhood, books & the gift of stray dogs

To celebrate the publication of My Meerkat Mum (her 15th picture book), Ruth Paul reflects on the childhood stories and antics that turned her into a grown-up reader, writer and illustrator. Once I won a prize. My sister forced me into winning it. She stood over me while I stabbed the colouring-in competition (instead of her) with my felt-pens and said, 'there’s a gap there' or 'do it better'. Clearly, it worked, because a few weeks later a brown-paper parcel addressed to me

Publishing a musical picture book

Publishing a musical picture book

Penny Scown, the Senior Editor at Scholastic NZ, takes us behind the scenes in the publishing process of Tāwhirimātea, A Song for Matariki, a new dual-language picture book (with CD) by June Pitman-Hayes, Kat Merewether and Ngaere Roberts. Detail of an illustration from the book This story begins in July 2015 when I was asked to return a phone message. On calling back, I found myself speaking with a woman called June Pitman-Hayes (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Pūkenga and Ngāti M

Victor Rodger & the dark humour of Struwwelpeter

Victor Rodger & the dark humour of Struwwelpeter

Playwright and Victoria University Writer-in-Residence Victor Rodger describes the twisted humour and terrifying morality of his favourite childhood book, Struwwelpeter. The titular Shock-headed Peter (image from Project Gutenberg) If you ask me about the children’s book I most treasured during my childhood, there can and will only ever be one answer: Struwwelpeter, aka Shockheaded Peter, by Dr Heinrich Hoffman (1845). Or, as I like to think of it, the Requiem for a Dream of

Six rather delicious new picture books

Six rather delicious new picture books

Jack Gabriel gorges on six international picture books from Walker Books and Gecko Press, from France, the UK and the US, finding something to recommend about each and every one. Warning: get your wallet ready. Like any good smorgasbord, this sampling of picture books spans a spectrum of flavour and form. Having all six spread enticingly before me on the dining room table made the task of choosing the first to digest all the more difficult. But like all good multi-course meal

How stories can help children with anxiety

How stories can help children with anxiety

Child psychologist Amy Wilson-Hughes gives some practical advice for using books and stories to help kids who are struggling with anxiety. Parents, caregivers and teachers: bookmark this one! There aren’t too many people who make it through life – especially the early years – without experiencing some form of anxiety. Childhood is pretty much an endless succession of new experiences: learning to be apart from your primary caregivers; learning the rules and routines of countle

Emily Writes and the books her kids are reading

Emily Writes and the books her kids are reading

Hilarious writer-about-parenting, Emily Writes tells us about the books her kids love, and what story time looks like at their place. Emily Writes (Photo by Christopher Tse) What does ‘story time’ look like at your house? Usually I’ll be making myself a coffee or trying to stay awake while I prepare lunches and one of my little vegemites will hold up a book and demand I stop RIGHT THIS NOW MINUTE! to read to them. So story time happens everywhere and anywhere. When I had my f

A day in the life of a picture-book writer

A day in the life of a picture-book writer

Marmaduke Duck creator, Juliette MacIver explains how she's managed to write such a vast number of excellent rhyming picture books, so we all might follow suit. How often do I get asked to describe the minutiae of my day as if such mundane details might be of as much interest to others as they are to my navel-gazing self? Why, almost never! So I present, with great pleasure, a photo of this morning’s coffee: This tea-set I inherited from my grandmother, and I rather treasure

Comedian Dai Henwood as a young bookworm

Comedian Dai Henwood as a young bookworm

Household name, TV personality and very funny guy, Dai Henwood answers four quick questions about the roles books have held throughout his life. Dai Henwood as a baby. Where did books fit into your childhood? Books were a staple in our household. My parents were avid readers and read to me as a child. They supplied me with what felt like limitless reading material. I was very lucky. I would read at night, and on holidays would read for what seemed a huge portion of the day. W

Promised Land: a fairy tale for everyone

Promised Land: a fairy tale for everyone

First-time authors Chaz Harris and Adam Reynolds have been all over the international media lately, thanks to the success of their self-published, crowdfunded picture book, Promised Land. It’s a fairy tale about ‘friendship, responsibility, adventure and love’ which just happens to have a gay love story at its heart. The Sapling talked to the authors about how they made the book. The authors, Adam Reynolds (left) and Chaz Harris You both have backgrounds as playwrights and sc